A Sally Hansen Gel Polish Kit Review

Skip the salon and let’s have our gel manicures done at home! If you’re a fellow Lacquerista then you’re probably familiar with the name, Sally Hansen. As a mainstream nail polish brand, it’s no surprise that they’ve been matching the gel nail craze with their very own DIY Sally Hansen Gel Polish Kit. But how good is it, is it worth the price tag? Are its promises of long, lasting gel nails true? Hopefully our review of the Sally Hansen Gel Polish Kit will help you to make the decision! 🙂

Getting to know the Sally Hansen Gel Polish Kit

The kit comes in two different colours, a vibrant red (“Red my lips”) and a pale pink (“Shell we dance”). I’ve always been more of a pink person so that’s the one I snagged from the store. As a starter kit, it comes with everything that you need to give yourself a pretty gel manicure. This includes (right to left in the photo above):

A LED light

A file and buffer

An orange cuticle stick

A gel base coat, top coat and a gel nail colour

A bottle of removal solution

Nail cleanser pads

I’m sure most of us are familiar with the steps involved in applying gel nail polish, but for those who aren’t- don’t worry! The Sally Hansen gel polish kit does come with a set of detailed instructions. To make things simple, each of the three bottles (base coat, gel color and top coat) are numbered 1-3, in the order of which they should be used.

Next up, the LED light. In an eye-catching hue of orange, the crescent shaped LED light comes to life in a shade of neon purple as soon as you plug it into an electrical outlet (via the provided cord). The LED lights will turn off after a little while, which is normal- simply press the lit up button on the top of the device to turn it on again when you need to use it for curing. Now that we have the light set up with the three bottles in front of us, it’s ready to begin our gel manicure! 🙂

Getting Started with the Sally Gel Nail Polish Kit

Just like applying any other nail polish, we always start off with a thin layer of base coat. Twisting off the lid from the base coat bottle, I used the brush and applied a fine layer of transparent base onto my nails. Quick and easy- probably took me less than a minute to do my one hand (I go one hand at a time). After I was done, I popped my fingers into the LED light and felt its warm sensation bathe my nails. Thirty seconds later, the purple glow switched off and my base coat was dry- the LED light worked like a charm! (One thing that I really love about the light is the fact that it’s timed- it automatically turns off after 30 seconds so you don’t have to worry about doing any timing! Just take your hand out when the light goes off!) 🙂

Now for the fun part where we actually get to add colour onto our nails! I applied a thin layer of the “Shell we dance?” and right away my first impression was “Wow, this looks really good!” This particular shade of nude pink was SO pretty- natural yet noticeable. The texture of the gel colour was also very easy to work with, it’s very forgiving even if you’re not a pro nail painter like me! For a single layer of nail colour, the coverage was way better than what I was used to. So far, so good! 30 seconds of LED light later (love how it dries so fast!), the layer of pink gel colour was cured. I knew I still had to apply a second layer of colour (to make it even more perfect) but the single layer was already enough to make me gush with excitement. ???? It looked just as professional as the gel nails that you pay $50+ for at a salon, and what? This Sally Hansen Gel Polish Kit was a little over $60? Definitely worth it in my opinion!

An application of top coat and some curing later, my gel nails were complete! The result? Why, super glossy, and shiny nails of course! Just remember to give your finished nails a good wipe down with the nail cleanser pads after you’re done unless you want to get tacky residue all over your fingers like me!

⚠️ Be careful not to get any excess gel polish on the edge of your skin! It will leave a ridge that you will be tempted to peel off! (One thing that helps is to run a toothpick around the edge after application of each coat)

Breakdown of the Pros and Cons

Pros

Cons

Very easy to use for beginners!

Could use more nail cleanser wipes

Produces salon-like gel nails in less than 10 minutes

LED light is a tad small (Most of us will have to cure our thumbs separately)

The almost creamy-texture of the gel polish is very easy to work with

Starter kit only comes in two colours

Lasts 1+ week without chipping

You’ll end up having to buy more gel polish colours ????

The gel polish dries very fast (Oh, the convenience!)

How long did the gel nails last?

When you take the time to apply them properly (ig. no excess polish on the cuticles!!), they last a good week and a half (for me, at least) without chipping (and that’s with all the things I put my nails through!) No peeling whatsoever. 🙂 Remember, the most common cause of short lived gel nails is user error! Therefore it’s super important that you’re applying them to your nails properly! I mean, you’re paying for the kit, so you might as well learn to use it perfectly right? 😉

Welcome to Oh My Nail Polish, here you’ll find the latest in fashion trends, in-depth product reviews, and a plethora of fashion tips and tricks to keep you moving fashion-forward in the nail polish world. We pride ourselves on making nail polish fashion easy and accessible for all of our readers, and we’ll always do our best to keep you looking luxurious!

Fashion

If you’re looking for the cutting edge in nail polish fashion, you’ve come to the right place. We know how much time you spend trying to figure out which fashions are trendy and which ones are true iconic classics. That’s why we dive into each trend to bring you the unbiased details.

Product Reviews

We’ll keep you informed of new products, and we’ll provide you with honest reviews that say more than what you’d find on most product reviews. We understand that your time is valuable, which is why our reviews are more holistic providing you with no-nonsense product reviews.